THE HAPPY ENDING

US, 1969, 114 minutes, Colour.
Jean Simmons, John Forsythe, Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Teresa Wright, Bobby Darin, Dick Shawn, Nanette Fabray.
Directed by Richard Brooks.

The Happy Ending was written, produced and directed by Richard Brooks and provided a star vehicle for his wife, Jean Simmons, whom he had also directed so effectively in his Elmer Gantry (1960). She received Oscar nominations for these roles.

The film is designed to look like a women's soap-opera, about romance and marriage. It looks like Love Story - 1953 style - and built-in clips of contemporary movies are put into the early part of the film only to contrast strongly to the shaky marriage of sixteen years later - of affairs, brittle surface success and happiness, alcohol and attempted suicides. Some critics missed the ironies of the whole film and assumed that it was romantic soap-opera all the way through. However, there is tough comment on marriage and happiness throughout the film and the ending looks inconclusive.

Richard Brooks has done some fine adaptation of stage classics and novels, including The Brothers Karamazov (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), Lord Jim (1965) In Cold Blood (1967). The Happy Ending is an interesting use of the look and styles of popular commercial cinema for social comment.

1. How did the film use the sentimental overtones of the title ironically?

2. How did the film blend the sentiment with the disillusion? Was it successful? Did the song, "What are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life?" contribute to the film?

3. How did the film re-create the atmosphere of the 50's (the Queen and the coronation, etc., as well as fashions) and the romantic film mood of those times?

4. Was Mary's imagining Elizabeth Taylor and Clark Gable at her wedding effective? What comment did it make on John and Mary's love and marriage? How were movie comments made during the film, especially Casablanca?

5. Were you surprised at the change after fifteen years? What had happened to the marriage? What had happened to Mary?

6. How sick was Mary - her need for drink, her suicide attempt, her emptiness and boredom; her need for a housekeeper-nurse? (What role did the housekeeper-nurse play in the home - liaison between husband and wife?).

7. Was the flashback structure of the film effective or awkward?

8. What was Mary's relationship with her daughter? With her mother?

9. How was the life of the bored housewife presented, e.g. the women at the club, Mary drinking at the bar, her buying spree, her isolation at home, John's business absences and infidelities, the other married couples?

10. Why was the New Year party so important and why did she avoid it?

11. Why did Mary want to go away? Did she think it would solve her problems? How selfish was she?

12. By the middle of the film had you understood Mary? How much of her collapse and frustration was her own fault? How much John's? What was the significance of the theme of Casablanca as a symbol of her personality?

13. How did the Bahamas affect her - the weather, atmosphere, beach, clothes, friendship and encouragement of the casino?

14. Were Mary's school friend and lover a happy couple? What was their philosophy of life? Did it make sense? Was it fulfilling?

15. What was the significance of the affair with the gigolo? What did Mary really want? What effect did it have on her? (How was the gigolo satirised?).

16. How effective was the sequence of Mary lying in the sea? Did she want to die? Why had she attempted suicide before? What effect had this had on her?

17. Why did Mary decide to go back?

18. Was Mary right in separating from John? In getting a job? Did she seem happier? Did she still love John?

19. Was the ending effective? What do you think happened? Had anything been resolved in either of them by the end of the film?

20. The film was billed as a woman's picture. Was it? Why? While a story, this film had a message. What was it? At whom was it aimed?